How Things Could Have Been
by YAXON
Summary: Title is subject to change. By a twist of fate, Byrne Faraday walks by the orphanage that houses a certain redheaded child, and eventually comes to adopt the child. How would things have turned out had someone actually been there for Souta Sarushiro back then? Will be a collection of short, non-chronological one-shots. Will be updated sporadically. AU. AAI2/GK2 Spoilers.


The New Year had come and gone; January was halfway over already. It was a bitterly cold, gray day. Snow blanketed the streets of LA, and ice coated the roads and sidewalks – a horrible day for an investigation outdoors. Yet there was no rest for the wicked; a murder had occurred the night before. Not too surprising, given the type of neighborhood the victim had lived in.

Prosecutor Byrne Faraday had just concluded his investigation for the day, so he was eager to get home to see his little girl. As he trudged along, the light layer of snow on the sidewalk crunched beneath his feet. The general area did not look that great at all; abandoned buildings left and right, and even the occupied ones were in pretty bad shape. It was more or less the slums of LA. The one good thing was the homely-looking little orphanage that Byrne was just passing by on his way to his car. The sign out front declared the building to be 'The Happy Family Home'.

Byrne couldn't help but smile mirthlessly. Even a well-intentioned facility as this one appeared rundown. Perhaps they lacked proper funding, or they were just going through a rough time. Whatever the case, the orphanage looked like it had seen better days.

As Byrne was about to walk right by it, a boy in a red raincoat caught his eye. The boy appeared sad and all alone as he went about making an igloo. The young prosecuting attorney swore that he could distinctly hear the lad sniffling as well. Not an uncommon occurrence; plenty of orphans were dissatisfied and depressed about their situation. Yet there was something about this one child that made Byrne pause on his way home. As Byrne listened in, he could barely make out the boy's pained whispers that were most likely not meant for anyone's ears but his own.

"Why won't you come back, dad…? Why did you have to leave me all alone?"

The boy continued to morosely shake his head and utter similar things under his breath, but Byrne was hung up on those queries. Was this youth simply… abandoned? It was certainly not within the realm of impossibility, yet it was unfathomable to think that a father would do that to his own child. What kind of selfish man…?

Before Byrne knew it, he found himself striding past the front flowerbeds and right up to the boy.

"Excuse me, but I couldn't help overhearing…?" Byrne trailed off uncertainly as he tapped the boy's shoulder. The boy jolted at the abrupt touch, and whipped around to face the young prosecutor.

"Wh-Who are you?! What do you want?" The boy demanded to know.

Frowning at the youth's instant distrust, he knelt down to the boy's level and spoke to him in a calm tone.

"My name is Byrne Faraday, and I would like to help you."

**These will be short, short one-shots that won't be in chronological order – nor will they necessarily be connected in the same AU all the time, if I feel like writing a different kind of scenario. I feel like Souta is neglected on this site; haven't even read one fanfic involving him as a major character. Maybe it's 'cause fans are more interested in romance, maybe it's 'cause not too many know about him, or maybe it's 'cause nobody cares enough to write about him. For me, after having watched the English fandub of Gyakuten Kenji 2, I liked the character all the more. So… we're going to rewrite history a bit and show glimpses of what could have been. The first few one-shots will more or less start off rocky in terms of relationships between characters; I'll be using the Japanese name of Souta Sarushiro unless people would prefer the fandub name of 'Simon Keyes'. **

**So review and tell me what you think! I would make these longer, but given that I have two major fanfictions going on right now, I can't dedicate too much time to these. Still, I can't help but write **_**something**_**. I don't want to let my inspiration to write for Souta go to waste, and so… the idea for these one-shots was born. **


End file.
